Big Ideas

Tomorrow's society: new ways to meet, connect and engage and the new meaning of fame

I was trying to catch up on some blogreading (an impossible task) today and came, by way of Valeria's Conversation Agent blog, across this post about one blogger's growth in popularity and the fact that he's very close to having 500 trackbacks registered in Technorati. He's asking folks to spread the word and link to him if they haven't already.

I read his post and decided that it didn't sound like he was trying to falsely generate interest. In fact, after reading that post as well as a few others (check this one out too) and the comments, it became quite clear that this is someone genuine. In his post, he and his commenters really exemplify the fact that you can use a blog to reach out and connect with people all over the world. Through blogging, one can create relationships of a global nature. I think that this phenomenon, more than anything else, is why I choose to blog and why I'm excited about the potential impact of the Internet as it continues to develop.

Whether it's through blogging, MySpace, Facebook, eBay, Yahoo!, etc. what is really transformational is the fact that we can all "meet" people around the world who share our interests and passions, without geographic limitations. We can even become "famous" with just our minds, a computer and an internet connection. It's really quite amazing. If ideas are currency and conversation is the means by which we transact business, the Internet is providing us with the tools to exponentially increase the reach and capacity of our conversations. It allows us to create globally tested ideas and to potentially converse with anyone, anywhere. That is hugely valuable.

So here you go, Gavin, I'm linking to you and hopefully sharing you with a few new readers who can benefit from your ideas and you from theirs.

 

Technorati tags: ideas as currency, influence economy, Servant of Chaos blog

Doh, sorry about that!

For those of you coming to my blog the past couple days you've probably had the odd experience of audio starting right away, creating some confusion.. I didn't intend for this post to autoplay but it appears that AskANinja's embed code defaults to that. Not cool at all. I went in and hacked around a bit (with my minimal coding skills.. not even sure they can be called "skills" really..) and I think it's better. Let me know if you're still having problems.

Again, sorry!

How do you connect with cool?

Steve Stoute and his agency, Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging, think they can help answer that question.

He calls it the "tanning of America"... that's an interesting phrase.

What he really seems to offer though, is advice on how to better connect with the changing culture of your customers and employees. Obviously, coming from the music business, his tendencies tend to lean in that direction (a very strong connection tool, to be sure) but what I found most intriguing was his suggestion to McDonald's to change the uniforms. Great idea.

Your employees are constant stewards of your brand. Make them love it, be proud of it and share it with everyone they know.

Then, do that for your customers too.

That's connecting. That's influence. It matters.

 

Technorati tags: economy of influence, branding, connection marketing, influence marketing

If you were Nike and it was time to advertise in India, where would you start?

Cricket of course!

A pretty good first effort, I'd say :)

 

 

Technorati tags: Nike ads, Nike Cricket, Advertising in India, Advertising

A little on the geeky side, but still, so funny..

By way of Scoble comes this pretty damn funny Ask a Ninja video from SXSW (the South By Southwest Festival) last week. A number of inside jokes so it might seem obscure to you, but hey, it's really for us geeks/dorks/nerds/people with a bit too much free time :)  

 

Technorati tags: SXSW, Ask A Ninja SXSW

The production car that's faster than a Formula 1 racer..

By way of my friend David, a huge car buff, comes this amazing 7 1/2 minute video about the Bugatti Veyron achieving a speed of 253 mph. What I really dug was the guy's overview of what had to be done technically in order to achieve this kind of performance. Going fast is about a lot more than just pure muscle it turns out :)

Bugatti Veyron at top speed
Uploaded by Flabber

 

 

Technorati tags: Bugatti Veyron, 253 mph, World's Fastest Production Car

Some quick hits so that I can get my computer to shut up..

I don't know about you all, but I have yet to come up with a good way to queue up stuff to read for later / blog about later. To date, the best approach for me has been to create a draft blog post in Live Writer, but I'm finding that even that isn't efficient enough for me. Saving to MyWeb kind of works, but it's not integrated enough into my daily habits that I go and check a specific tag on a regular basis... Anyhow, tips are definitely appreciated, if you have any. In the meanwhile, here are some tabs I've been keeping open in Firefox that I can now close and get my computer to stop whining (why the hell is FF such a resource hog!?!?!):

 

Brody Jenner is either the biggest tool ever or a genius.. : I stopped watching "The Hills". I just couldn't take the idiocy of the two "stars", Lauren and Heidi. But reading this back story on the two toolbag boyfriends, Spencer and Brody, almost makes me want to put it back on my Tivo, just so I can follow them a bit more. I haven't even processed what this says for us as a society..

P&G understands "conversation marketing": A very short piece in Ad Age, but an important one. Jim Stengel of P&G understands that there is no ability to control someone else and that a company can actually build relationships with its consumers. "This business is personal" - great line from the video. This stuff gets me so excited about the future that I scare myself sometimes.

Google's advertising product development reaches out: Maybe this is about trying to determine the priority of its ad product development, but my gut says this is something a bit more savvy. I think this "survey" is actually intelligently positioned marketing. I think Google's trying to get big, slow, old advertisers to understand that they don't have much in the way of metrics from the majority of their buys.

A reminder that not all great companies are public: This quick blurb on REI from the Motley Fool reminded me that I really need to get my series on Seattle companies going. I heart REI.

The Starbucks memo from Howard Schultz: Speaking of Seattle companies that I love, here's a link to a memo from Howard Schultz that illustrates just how different of a company it is. "Let's get back to the core" he says. By the way, the fact that there's a "Starbucks Gossip" blog that is obviously frequented by baristas is not only unsurprising, I actually thought to myself "holy crap, I'm an idiot for not finding this before" when I came across it.

Social shopping is alive!: I might get more into this later, in its own post, but it looks like some folks are making real progress on social shopping (something I first brought up here) in a variety of ways. Sounds like the National Retail Federation is getting after this with some big tech partners. Awesome.

Buffett chooses Sue to join the Berkshire board... wow!

 I saw this story last night and had to read it twice to make sure that I'd read it correctly. Seriously, wow. This says a lot about Sue and a ton about Buffett as well, I think. Obviously, she's had an extraordinary career and succeeded in a variety of roles, but this is a pretty amazing achievement. Given that she's not the CEO and is actually moving from the strictly financial role of CFO, you've got to figure that she didn't instantly pop out as an obvious choice for Berkshire.

My read of Buffett is that he's incredibly thoughtful about the people he surrounds himself with and that his board is much less about favors and flashy names than it is about people who he admires, respects and listens to. Again, a huge vote of confidence for Sue. Awesome stuff.

One worry though: this will probably do more to stoke the "Fire Terry, give Sue the CEO title" calls from commentators. Whatever.

 

 

Technorati tags: Warren Buffett, Sue Decker, Berkshire Hathaway